Sign up to like post

Sign up to like post

Share

Welcome to 1100 Pennsylvania, a newsletter devoted to President Donald Trump’s Trump International Hotel Washington, D.C. (and his other companies). President Trump, of course, still owns his businesses and can profit from them.

If you like what you see, tell someone—and support this work by paying for a subscription. If you’ve been forwarded this newsletter, subscribe for yourself at zacheverson.substack.com.Questions? Read our FAQ/manifesto.Tips or feedback? Contact me, Zach Everson, securely via email at 1100Pennsylvania@protonmail.com or on Signal at 202.804.2744.

“I love the Kurds,” Trump told Kurdish Leader Ilham Ahmed in an unconventional diplomatic meeting at the Trump International Hotel in Washington on Monday night.

Ahmed asked Trump if he would leave the Kurds in Syria to be slaughtered by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Trump promised them he would not.

“We felt much better, but we are still looking for more meetings,” explained Ahmed, a Syrian-Kurdish politician and the head of the Executive Committee of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), on Tuesday.

Ahmed is in Washington this week meeting with Trump administration officials and members of Congress. She was dining with congressional leadership on Monday night at the hotel when the President stopped by her table to say hello and stayed for a 10-minute conversation. Trump was there for a political fundraiser.

One week before Trump’s inauguration—for which he had been a high-level fundraiser—[David] Broidy invited two powerful but controversial Romanian politicians to be his guests at several exclusive inaugural events: Liviu Dragnea, head of the Social Democratic Party and speaker of the lower house in Parliament, and then-Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu. While Grindeanu has the title, Dragnea is “the de-facto head of the government,” said Caterina Preda, a political science professor at the University of Bucharest.

The pair met Trump, with Broidy at the table [in BLT Prime]. As Dragnea recounted on Facebook, Trump responded enthusiastically to his call for stronger ties between Romania and the United States.

“We will make it happen! Romania is important for us!” Trump said, according to Dragnea’s Facebook post.

Study analyzes meaning of ‘emoluments’ ‘based on 138 million words written between 1760 and 1799’

Perhaps most importantly the study, which was not submitted on behalf of either party in the case, found these coordinated noun phrases often used the word “other” before emoluments. (In fact, the phrase “other emoluments” accounted for one out of every 40 uses of the word, which is far more common than for other nouns.) This suggests many of the words that would proceed “other emoluments” were understood themselves to be forms of emoluments. This would include words like “bounties,” “fees,” “contracts,” “lands,” “pay,” “clothing,” “privileges” and “places."

Taken together, this research suggests that many things constitute an emolument and that Trump’s continued acceptance of basically anything from foreign states could be interpreted as accepting emoluments.

Other Trump Organization news

“President Trump’s company plans to institute E-Verify, a federal program that allows employers to check whether new hires are legally eligible to work in the United States, in every one of its golf clubs, hotels and resorts, following a Washington Post report that its club in Westchester County, N.Y., employed undocumented immigrants for years.” By Jonathan O'Connell, Elise Viebeck and Tracy Jan for The Washington Post

Trump Org EVP Eric Trump called that Washington Post article hypocritical, pointing out that The Post’s owner’s other company doesn’t use E-Verify for all of its employees. Twitter’s 240-character limit must have prevented Eric from going on to acknowledge that Jeff Bezos didn’t get elected president by pledging to build a wall to keep out Mexican “rapists.”

Oversight and Reform—Chair Elijah Cummings’s (D–MD) staff “has already sent out 51 letters to government officials, the White House, and the Trump Organization asking for documents related to investigations that the committee may launch,” according to CBS News on Jan. 13.

Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management—Chair Dina Titus (D–NV) announced plans to investigate “Donald Trump’s attempts to prevent the relocation of the F.B.I headquarters and to profit from his presidency at his D.C. hotel” on Jan. 24.

Individual capacity—On Dec. 14, Trump’s personal attorneys appealed the denial of their motion to dismiss the case, also to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. On Dec. 19, the AGs replied to Trump’s motion for a stay pending that appeal by voluntarily dismissing the claims against Trump in his “individual capacity to allow the claims against President Trump in his official capacity to move forward expeditiously.” (The AGs only brought suit against Trump in his individual capacity after the judge suggested they do so.) Trump’s personal attorneys, on Dec. 21, opposed the motion to dismiss at the district level, saying the appeals court now has jurisdiction and accusing the AGs of “gamesmanship.”

UPDATED Employees’ class-action suit alleging racial discrimination—Two of the three plaintiffs did not appear at a status hearing on Jan. 25; their cases were moved to arbitration. Via email, their attorney, A.J. Dhali, said his clients did not appear at the hearing because their case already had been moved to arbitration last year. The next status hearing is scheduled for Oct. 4.

Health inspections, current status (latest change, Aug. 10, 2018)

❌Hotel: five violations on May 7, 2018; two were corrected on site

❌BLT Prime and Benjamin Bar: nine violations on Aug. 10, 2018

❌Sushi Nakazawa: two violations on Aug. 10, 2018

✔️Banquet kitchen: no violations on Aug. 10, 2018

❌Pastry kitchen: two violations on Aug. 10, 2018

✔️Gift shop: no violations on May 7, 2018

❌Employee kitchen and in-room dining: five violations on Aug. 10, 2018; two were corrected on site

One thing that has nothing to do with Trump’s businesses (I think, tough to tell sometimes!)

Thanks for reading. If you like what you saw, tell someone—and support this work by paying for a subscription. If you’ve been forwarded this newsletter, subscribe for yourself at zacheverson.substack.com.Questions? Read our FAQ/manifesto.Tips or feedback? Contact me, Zach Everson, securely via email at 1100Pennsylvania@protonmail.com or on Signal at 202.804.2744.